“(3) Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. (4) As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. (5) Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them”
My quiver has been blessed four times! I am certainly a lucky man to have been chosen by God to be a father to my children. Each of them, different in their own special way, fill my heart and soul.
Dimitri (holding Andrew), Ella, and Dante’
Dante’
My first born. He’s the one who made me “dad” for the first time. He is probably the most like me. He has a love for old music, old movies, and loves information on older celebrities. He is loud and boisterous at times, but is also a gentle soul who loves to help people. His random acts of kindness make me so proud of him. He’s a hard worker who loves to have fun and loves to be surrounded by friends. In a sense, he is my “Mini-Me.” He is currently studying hard with college and continues to thrive!
Dimitri
My second born. He is also a bit like me, but in another way. Now a high schooler, I see him mimicking many of my study “habits,” which is probably not good. I was the same way – waiting till the last minute to do homework or projects, forgetting to do things I need to and only doing the things that I WANTED to do, and never really studying like I should. I try to use those things as “teaching opportunities” with him. He is, however, a typical teenager right now. He is learning how to golf, so I cannot wait to go play a round (and rounds) with him. He has a bright future and in the years ahead, I know he will do great things!
Not unless there is a miracle
After some tests, I was asked if I was done having children. At the time, I was. The doctor said this was good, because based on the test results, I only had about a 4% chance of ever having more children.
After my divorce, and after I remarried, my wife and I discussed children. She is younger than me and wanted children. Knowing what I knew, it would take a miracle to have more. We discussed adoption at one point and even looked into other methods of getting pregnant. Then the miracle came ….
Ella
I will never forget the day Sam told me that we were having a baby. I will never forget they day we found out that our miracle was going to be a girl! I will never forget the day that she was born. For some reason, God decided that I would once again be a daddy and he sent me this beautiful little girl. What a joy it was to relive the first tooth, the first steps, the first words, and all the things that come with having a baby. She is so smart!! She excels at so many things! She her laughter is music to my ears. When she breaks out in song, I could listen all day. I love our moments playing Little People, reading books, and watching Bluey together. She is my sweet princess and I look forward to those special daddy/daughter moments.
Andrew
Another miracle! Ella was about a year old when we found out that Sam was once again expecting. It was truly a huge surprise to both of us! He is the opposite of Ella in so many ways. We never had to baby proof anything with her, but he is always into something. He is WAY ahead of where he should be. He was walking early and no doubt will be talking early. He is doing all he can to keep up with his sister. He is one of the happiest babies. There is something about his smile that just makes everything better. His laughter is just as musical as Ella’s. His first year is flying by and I look forward to teaching him to throw a baseball and those great father/son things.
My dear children –
Thank you for each being so special to me. I am so honored to be your father. I love you with every ounce of my being. I hope that I will live up to the responsibility that God has given me to teach you, to raise you, and to prepare you for life. In the time ahead, I will be happy to listen to you, to help you, or to give advice. I promise to be here for you till the end of my days.
Our son made his entrance into the world this week! As you know, there were a few times that we actually thought he’d be arriving very early. Needless to say, there was a lot of stress.
For the past three weeks, every time Sam had her OB/GYN appointment, I was ready with bags at the door. I knew that at any time, the doc could say that he was going to induce. Sam had a rough go this pregnancy. She had high blood pressure, and a few other things that may have led to an induction.
Thursday – Last Week (10-7)
The doctor visit the week before had the doc on the fence. Do we induce or not? After this appointment, he was pretty sure that the baby was going to come that weekend. Just to be safe, he scheduled an induction for Monday morning (10-11). Sam called me on her way home from the appointment and told me she was coming home.
I worked Wednesday night, so I stayed up anticipating us going to the hospital. When she got home, I went to sleep so I could get some rest before work. Every night last week, I was on edge, I had my phone on me awaiting the call. The doc had already told us that if the water broke, things were going to progress quickly. I work an hour away, so I was very worried. The last two nights, I only had one patient, so that if I had to leave, my coworkers wouldn’t be overwhelmed.
Sunday (10-10)
It became very obvious over the weekend that Sam was struggling. She was not feeling well and was in more pain than she had been in. We debated taking Ella to Nana and Papa’s Sunday night so we could just get up and go, but we elected to keep her home. Ella must have known something was up, because she spent lots of time snuggling mommy on the couch and daddy in my chair. It was wonderful.
After Ella went down for bed, Sam and I gathered what we needed and had everything ready by the door. Sam got very emotional, as any mom would. Things were going to change. We were going to have another little one at home. The “what ifs” start running through your head and those only make you a nervous wreck. It was all we could do to actually fall asleep.
Monday – Induction Day
We were all up at 4:30am Monday. Induction was set for 7am.
We got Ella up and took her to Nana’s. We got to her house at 6am. We had to call the hospital at 6 to make sure that they were still going to do the induction. Thankfully, we were still set. When we left, Ella really wasn’t sure what was happening, but she did well.
We stopped to grab a bite to eat, because once you get to the room, Sam wasn’t allowed to eat or drink anything except ice chips. We arrived at the hospital about 15 minutes early and they checked us in and got us to our room. By 8am, the induction process began.
Sam had been dilated to 2 or 3 for about three weeks and nothing happened. They checked her again and she was still the same. Once they got her IV in (which was a challenge because she was so dehydrated), they gave her some pill which was supposed to thin the cervix and help kick start things. The pill takes about 4 hours to work, so they really never even came to check until then.
At about noon they came in and checked her and things were progressing. She was actually starting to feel some contractions toward the end of the fourth hour. They did not start Pitocin yet. They wanted to wait an hour or so and see how things were going. About 1pm they came back in and said that they would need to start the Pitocin. At about this time, Sam was given her epidural.
When they checked her she was still dilated to about 2 or 3. The waiting was driving me crazy! At one point, they knew she was contracting, but couldn’t really tell the intensity of them, and they added some sort of pressure thingy that went up next to the baby’s head. This showed the staff exactly what they needed.
A little after 6pm, she was dilated to 4. Most OB/GYN’s will tell you that you kinda “stall” at 4 and are there for awhile. I was watching the little strip that the fetal monitor was printing and I could see the contractions getting more consistent and more intense. Sam was actually starting to feel them, unlike with Ella. 40 minutes later they checked her and she was obviously ready, because the nurse looked surprised. She told one of the other nurses, “get him on the phone and tell him we’re gonna start pushing!”
My rock star wife went from 4cm to 10 cm in 40 minutes! As they got the rest of the room ready for delivery, we got ready to start pushing. The doc walked in just as Sam was getting ready to start. Once she started pushing, it became pretty clear that it wouldn’t be long. As the baby started to come out, there looked like there might be a problem and the doc told my wife that he was going to need the vacuum to help get the baby out due to the fact that he was turned a bit and that his hand was up next to his head.
As he mentioned this, she started to have another contraction and the nurse told her to push through it. She did and that was all our son needed and he was out. It was truly amazing to witness. My wife only pushed for 7 minutes! 7 minutes!!!! The doc handed me the scissors and I cut the cord, which is always a memorable moment. I noticed that the baby wasn’t crying. That freaked me out a bit. It freaked Sam out even more.
As they were cleaning him off, I heard a little cry, but nothing like I had heard with my other children. Once he was cleaned off, they brought him over to Sam for skin to skin time. There was our second little miracle and he was perfect!
Holding mommy’s hand
While I was pacing the floor, I posted on Facebook that people should give their guesses as to what time he’d be born and how much he would weigh. My friend Sharon from high school almost nailed it! She was closest with her guess of 7:11pm and 7 pounds 11 ounces. She was only off by 4 minutes and 4 ounces.
My boy!
When she was born, my daughter looked just like Sam. My son, however, tends to look a lot like me. I say that because he was making what I call “Grumpy Old Man” faces. One of the first pictures I took of him, he has the funniest grumpy look on his face. Even in the picture above, he looks a bit angry. The picture from his birthday that just cracks me up, and reminds me of a look I would make, is this one:
Grumpy!
I love that look and pose!
They keep you in the hospital for 24 hours and then they want to discharge you, as long as nothing is wrong. My son was jaundice and so they kept checking levels. The same thing happened with Ella and she would up being readmitted to the hospital after discharge. We wanted to avoid that at all costs if possible.
They came in at about the 24 hour mark and said that the levels weren’t bad and that we could go if we wanted to. They said if we left, we’d need to follow up with our pediatrician in the morning and have blood drawn again to check levels. We opted to stay one more night so they could check levels first thing in the morning.
Ready to go home
Wednesday morning the levels were fine and we were discharged. It was time for the little man to meet his big sister! We had video chatted with her a couple times and showed her the baby. “Baby!” she would say, but not really comprehending that this baby was her brother and would be coming home with us.
We were lucky that we were able to get discharged fairly quickly that morning. We headed straight to Nana’s to pick up our little princess. She hadn’t seen us almost three days. When we walked in the house, she screamed happily and clapped her hands. She was SO happy to see us. Then it was time to introduce her to AJ.
Not sure what to think….
I’m sure that there was a lot of confusion at that particular moment. She had a lot to process. Nana and Papa got to hold their grandson before we left to go home. The ride home was unusually quiet. For me, it was weird because as I looked in the rearview mirror, it was the first time that both kids were back there. It was an eyeopener!
When we got home, Ella seemed a little more comfortable. I know she still really has no clue how to process it all, but she seemed generally happy to have the baby home. I will be framing this picture – I think it is just marvelous!
Sibling love
We were up early again today for well visits for both kids. They both are doing great!
The events of the past week only reinforce what a lucky man I am. I am so blessed!
There was so much more I wanted to write, but AJ kinda sums up what we all feel like over here….
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 